New home construction surged to a five-month high in September, but permits for future building fell to their lowest level in more than a year, the government said Tuesday. Get the full story »
Filed under: Real estate
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BofA prepares to restart foreclosures
Bank of America says it plans to resume foreclosures in 23 states next week and will refile paperwork for 102,000 cases. Get the full story »
Bulls guard Korver buys $1.38M Glencoe mansion
Kyle Korver holds the ball away from Milwaukee Bucks point guard Keyon Dooling. (Jeff Hanisch/USA Presswire)
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago Bulls guard and forward Kyle Korver has paid $1.38 million for a 16-room mansion in Glencoe that once was listed for $2.95 million.
Korver, 29, signed a three-year, $15 million contract during the summer to join the Bulls from the Utah Jazz. Now, he has become the rare Bull to buy in Glencoe. Most Chicago-area homeowning Bulls over the years have bought downtown or in other northern suburbs like Northbrook, Highland Park and Lake Forest. Get the full story »
Oct. 18, 2010 at 7:38 a.m.
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Filed under: Chicago executives, Education, Housing, Real estate New Kellogg dean buys $885K Evanston home
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Sally Blount, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management’s new dean, has paid $885,000 for a six-bedroom brick Georgian-style house in Evanston. Blount joined Kellogg in July after serving as a dean at New York University. Get the full story »
U.S. says number of rich paying estate tax drops
The wealthy few who pay a tax on inheritances has dropped significantly over the last decade, according to data released by the U.S. government on Friday. Get the full story »
Oct. 15, 2010 at 3:18 p.m.
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Filed under: Investigations, Litigation, Real estate, Updated Countrywide’s Mozilo settles suit for $67.5 million
Angelo R. Mozilo, who presided over the spectacular rise and devastating fall of Countrywide Financial Corp., struck a deal Friday to avoid going to trial next week on accusations of investor fraud and insider trading. Mozilo agree to pay $22.5 million in fines to the SEC and to turn over $45 million in ill-gotten gains to former shareholders who have sued him.
State gives American Home until Oct. 22
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said Friday it was giving American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. until Oct. 22 to provide it with details on its foreclosures procedures. Get the full story »
Bank shares slide on foreclosure worries
Bank shares declined Friday morning in a broad industry sell-off, as investors continued to fear the impact the continuing foreclosure crisis will have on future earnings. Get the full story »
Oct. 14, 2010 at 2:50 p.m.
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Filed under: Banking, Mortgages, Real estate, Stock activity Financial stocks dip as bank mortgage woes mount
Stocks dipped Thursday after another disappointing jobs report and growing concern over how potentially damaging foreclosure documents will weigh on the health of major banks. But losses were mitigated by expectations that the Federal Reserve will have to act soon to strengthen the economy.
30-year mortgage rate drops to 4.19%
U.S. mortgage rates reached new record lows in the latest week, according to a Freddie Mac survey released on Thursday, as weak economic data fueled demand for safe-haven government debt.
Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, the most widely used loan, averaged 4.19 percent for the week ended Oct. 14, down from the previous week’s 4.27 percent and the lowest on record, according to the survey. Get the full story »
Summer quarter busiest ever for home seizures
More than 9,000 homes in Illinois were scheduled to go to foreclosure auction or were repossessed by banks in September, as mortgage lenders continued to push foreclosures through the system to ease the backlog of failed loan modifications, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.
Nationally for the entire third quarter, the company said, the number of foreclosure auctions scheduled nationally totaled more than 372,000, the highest quarterly total since the company began tracking foreclosures in 2005. Meanwhile, the more than 288,000 bank repossessions hit a record high for the third quarter.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, almost 26,000 Illinois homes were scheduled to be auctioned or were repossessed by lenders. Get the full story »
Illinois officials expose four mortgage companies
Illinois regulators have “outed” four mortgage servicers that it said did not respond to requests for information on their foreclosure procedures. Get the full story »
Officials in 50 states launch foreclosure probe
Protestors at a foreclosure and eviction rally in Menlo Park, Calif., Sept. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
All 50 states launched a joint investigation of the mortgage industry on Wednesday, a move some experts fear will cause uncertainty and threaten the recovery of the fragile housing market.
The state attorneys general are looking at allegations some banks used shoddy or fraudulent paperwork to remove struggling borrowers from their homes during a foreclosure crisis that is one of the most visible wounds of the 2007-2009 recession.
“We are in the fourth year of a housing and economic crisis that was brought on by lax practices of the mortgage lending industry,” Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said in a statement. “The latest allegations of corner cutting and slipshod paperwork are troubling, but perhaps not surprising.” Get the full story »
States to investigate mortgage industry
A coalition of as many as 40 state attorneys general is expected Wednesday to announce an investigation into the mortgage-servicing industry, an effort some of them hope will pressure financial institutions to re-write large numbers of troubled loans.
The move come amid recent allegations that mortgage-servicers, which include units of major banks such as Bank Of America Corp., submitted fraudulent documents in thousands of foreclosure proceedings nationwide. Get the full story »
